[Bf-committers] Google Summer of Code 2016 - Adding CAD functionality to Blender

[matmenu]

Hi João,

Good to see some interest in improving Blender's CAD capabilities :) I 
think it would be a good idea to speak about it on Blenderartists, 
giving some focus to avoid the christmas list effect. From experience 
and what I read on the forums though, improving the snapping system 
would be very welcome.

For dimensioning, there are already many addons, 2 of them are really 
good: 
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts/Curve/Dimension 
and
https://www.blender3darchitect.com/2012/10/dimension-lines-for-blender-with-the-caliper-add-on/ 
and https://github.com/Antonioya/blender/tree/master/measureit.

I find it interesting to have some work done in Python in this GSoC as 
it will allow users to use it even if it's not merged in master!

Regards

On 02/03/2016 13:17, João Araújo wrote:
> Good afternoon,
>
> I am a college student who has known Blender for a few years now, and would
> like to contribute in GSoC 2016 by adding CAD functionality. I would like
> to ear your thoughts on my project idea.
>
> I have been checking on what has been done to implement CAD in Blender. I
> didn't find almost any software. Mostly there were forum discussions about
> how great it would be if Blender could have CAD features, while others
> stated that it would be impractical.
>
> The only actual add-on I found was this one
>
> http://www.cad4arch.com/cadtools/index.htm
>
> but although it is still being developed, it is paid and only works with
> Blender 2.49b. The author states an intention of embedding it into Blender,
> though.
>
> >From what I read, and based on my experience working with CAD packages, I
> compiled a list of targets for what I would propose myself to achieve
> during GSoC:
>
> ordered from most important to less important
>
>    - Add a new editor that would allow the user to make ISO-compliant
> drawings of individual parts.
>        - This requires, from the top of my head, the ability of drawing the
> 6 isometric views, at a standard scale, on standard sized paper (A4, A3,
> etc.), adding dimensions (lengths and angles), centerlines, axes, being
> able to do section views (with crosshatch drawing) and detail views.
>    - Add sketch tools (the ability to draw lines, circles, rectangles, etc.
> ; this serves the purpose of increasing the precision of drawing with
> Blender)
>    - Add reference geometry (reference planes and axes)
>    - Add a dimensioning tool (something that allows the user to edit the
> dimensions a posteriori the sketch being created)
>    - Modify the array modifier in order to allow explicit circular arrays
>         - This can already be achieved using a trick with empties, but I
> would like to clarify this workflow and simplify it (for example, instead
> of the user rotating the empty by 360/n degrees, where n is the number of
> objects, he would simply select n and the modifier would take care of the
> rest)
>    - Add a fillet tool (a very simple addition; can be done with vertex
> groups and the bevel modifier currently; once again I simply want to
> simplify it)
>    - Add a precise offset tool (currently, I can simply extrude and scale ;
> I want to make this work with the dimensioning tool mentioned above)
>
>
> I believe these are all feasible by me, with the first one being the most
> complex and one of the few requiring C programming. The others could be
> implemented as a Python Add-On.
>
> Best regards,
> Joao
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